PACKAKD.J HABITS OF THE LOCUST. 625 



Under date of March 4, 1877, Lieutenant Carpenter writes me from 

 Camp Eobinson, JSIebraska: "The warm weather has hatched out the 

 eggs in Western Nebraska and a snow-storm has since destroyed the 

 young." 



In Montana the Monthly Weather Review reports locust as hatch- 

 ing out by millions in valleys about Virginia City. May 28 they were 

 numerous throughout the Territory; 27th, began to fly. lu July they 

 were seen flying southwest 11th to 2Uth, and southeast 27th to 31st; much 

 damage done in some localities. In August millions flying southeast 

 l^t to 5th at Virginia City; decreased in numbers until 29th; no eggs 

 deposited. According to the Monthly Agricultural Eeport for July, 

 grasshoppers were abundant in July at Jefl'erson, and threatened to 

 greatly reduce the wheat-crop. It should be noticed that the summer of 

 1870 was a hot and dry one throughout the West. 



I quote further information regarding the locust in Montana from Mr. 

 Whitman's report for 187G. Besides the region named in the article 

 above quoted from the Winnipeg Standard, various parts of Montana 

 are known to have been considerable hatching-grounds during the past 

 spring. In the Bismarck Tribune of June 14 is found the following, 

 which is quoted because it gives an idea not only of the i)lace but of the 

 nature of a breeding-ground : 



Ix THE Field, near Rosebud Buttes, May 29, 1876. 



As we move westward the grazing improves, and here in the Little Missouri Valley 

 the season is at least a month in advance of the season on the Missouri. This would 

 be a splendid grazing region were the water good. The grass is heavy and nutri- 

 tious, but the water is strongly impregnated with alkali. Millions of locusts are just 

 now making their appearance in this region. Too young to lly or do much harm, in a 

 few days, should the winds fa%'or them, they will sweep down upon the defenseless 

 agriculturists on the border, doing untold damage. 



Officers who passed over the country between the Little Missouri and the Yellow- 

 stone Rivers during the spring state at various points in that region young locusts 

 were found in immense numbers. Shortly before the 23d of July migrating swarms 

 of locusts appeared iu the vicinity of General Crook's camp ; "myriads of grasshoiipers 

 tilled the air, appearing like an immense drifting snow-stoim, tending toward the 

 southeast, and apparently taking advantage of a northwest wind to favor their flight 

 to the same fields that they have eti'ectually devastated for two consecutive seasons." — 

 (Extract from a letter of July 23, quoted in the Pioneer Press and Tribune.) 



HABITS OF THE LOCUST. 



The following account of the habits of the locust, its mode and time 

 of egg-laying, and its time of hatching, is compiled 

 /T [|J^ from the statements of others, as 1 have only been in 



( H ^^^Y^TPTT' ^^^ West during midsummer after the young had 

 1 if^ ^\Sv/ hatched and before the eggs were laid. Having, 

 (h JJ/^^'^^ however, obtained the eggs of C. siyret us from Iowa 



Uj iYp^''a~& and Minnesota, and studied the habits of Caloptenus 



'' femar-rubrnm of the East, so closely allied to C. 



Fig. L — R oc k y sxiretus^ and having observed the movements of (Edip- 

 Mountain Locust, oda sordida and Carolina during the process of egg- 

 l^gg-laying ap- laying, I can more intelligentlv describe the process 

 pendages of te- . ^ "' t i i n xi i x^- j. ■ l 



male, a end of ^^ sjyretus. Indeed, all the dmereut species oi grass- 

 abdomen; b, up- hoppers are very similar in their habits, nearly all 

 per; c, under laying their eggs in the ground, others (as in Chloe- 

 ^^^^^' iitis) inserting them in rotten wood. When about to 



lay her ripe eggs, the female selects a dry field, either in upland pas- 

 ture or i)lowed lauds, or even hard roadsides and paths. In the latter 

 place they are more frequently observed; but from being interrupted 

 when beginning their holes, they often leave smooth round holes, a little 

 smaller than a lead pencil, and without any egg-sac. Immediately after 

 40 G s 



